Marginalia Science

October 24, 2025, 10am - 6pm| The Heights Room, Corcoran Commons, Boston College |听

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Social sciences, like many disciplines, have often centered their research on dominant populations and perspectives, leaving critical gaps in our understanding of human behavior across diverse cultural, social, and political contexts. The goal of this one-day conference is to amplify scholarship from underrepresented voices and diverse perspectives, thereby providing a dedicated space for research that is often marginalized within mainstream academic discourse. This conference will bring together researchers from the psychological and social sciences, broadly defined, and offer them a platform to share their work, engage with cutting-edge research, connect with like-minded scholars, and receive professional development support.

The conference will feature three early-career keynote speakers, a data blitz, poster sessions, and conversational roundtables focused on professional development topics. Registration is FREE, thanks to a generous grant from the Boston College Institute for Liberal Arts .

We welcome participation from faculty, researchers, and students in psychology, sociology, education, political science, philosophy, neuroscience, biology, and related areas. The conference will highlight research from individuals with underrepresented identities, research topics, or perspectives, and/or research interests in diversity or equity-related issues in social, behavioral, and brain sciences or philosophy. We hope that this Marginalia Science x Boston College event will serve as a catalyst for change within psychological and social science research, fostering a more inclusive and supportive academic environment and expanding the boundaries of knowledge in meaningful ways.

Conference Objectives:

Showcase research that challenges mainstream psychological and social science perspectives.
Provide a forum for researchers, particularly those from marginalized identities or working on underrepresented topics, to share their work.
Facilitate mentorship and professional development through workshops and networking opportunities, empowering students through shared knowledge and opportunities for collaborations.
Build and strengthen the Marginalia Science community by fostering discussions on the future of equity and inclusion in psychological science.
Visibly and formally committing to a mission of inclusivity in scholarship and scholars.

This event is being conducted in partnership with and the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Boston College, with support from the Institute for Liberal Arts. For questions, please email marginaliaconference@gmail.com.

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Friday - Oct 24th听\|听Corcoran Commons听\| to Attend
10:00 AM	Convening听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听
10:30 AM	Opening Remarks
10:35 AM	Data Blitz Talks -听Featuring 6 rapidfire presentations with Q&A
11:20 AM	Break
11:30 AM	Data Blitz Talks -听Featuring 6 rapidfire presentations with Q&A
12:15 PM	Lunch and Conversation
1:30 PM	Poster Session
2:45 PM	Coffee Break & Transition
3:00 PM	Keynote Speakers -听Featuring talks from 3 invited early career keynote speakers, plus Q&A > Sirada Rochanavibhata, A cross-cultural and cross-linguistic comparison of language development in Thailand and the United States > Riana Brown, Investigating inequality: Psychological drivers of action > Wicia Fang, How stable are evaluations of status across social interactions?
5:00 PM	Reception & Closing Remarks

Sirada Rochanavibhata
San Francisco State University

A cross-cultural and cross-linguistic comparison of language development in Thailand and the United States

This talk will discuss the influence of cultural background and linguistic experience on language development. The first study found cross-cultural differences in mothers鈥� scaffolding strategies and children鈥檚 narrative skills. When jointly recalling memories, Thai monolingual mothers and children exhibited a low-elaborative style鈥攃haracterized by more concise narratives and greater repetition鈥攚hereas American-English monolingual mothers and children exhibited a high-elaborative style鈥攃haracterized by longer narratives and more questions. The second study examined reminiscing styles of Thai-English bilingual mother-child dyads across their two languages. Bilinguals exhibited two distinct conversation styles that resembled each of their two monolingual counterparts: low-elaborative when speaking Thai and high-elaborative when speaking English. These findings suggest that cultural and linguistic norms influence parent-child interactions and language socialization. By interacting with adults, children acquire linguistic competence and learn to converse in socially appropriate ways. This research underscores the importance of studying diverse and underrepresented populations in order to build representative theories of child development.

Riana Brown
The Ohio State University

Investigating Inequality: Psychological Drivers of Action

Group-based inequality persists across a striking number of social identities (e.g., race, social class, sexuality, gender identity) and in many important life domains, such as pernicious disparities in access to healthcare and wealth. For example, the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated global income and health disparities, where the richest 10% of the world population now owns 76% of all wealth, and Black U.S. Americans now live five fewer years on average than White U.S. Americans. The present research investigates how people react to such information about social inequality and bias, specifically when it spurs them to action to reduce social inequality in different areas (e.g., race and sexuality/gender identity). These studies investigate which domains of disparities (e.g., in health or economics) spark the most engagement on social media and support for inequality-reduction efforts (and why). In sum, this work provides insight into people鈥檚 complex reactions to social inequalities. As social inequalities continue to persist, the need to understand what psychological underpinnings may drive or impede efforts to pursue greater equity and justice is as urgent as ever.

Wicia Fang
Cornell University

How Stable are Evaluations of Status Across Social Interactions?

A person鈥檚 status is consequential across life domains. Yet, it remains unclear whether one鈥檚 status is a stable, trait-like characteristic鈥攔elatively unaffected by social context鈥攐r whether it is socially constructed in-the-moment鈥攙arying depending on one鈥檚 interaction partner. To examine this, we analyzed 1519 naturalistic, dyadic conversations (each at least 25 minutes), after which participants (N=753) evaluated themselves and their partner on status and personality traits. Using the Social Relations Model, we estimated that evaluations of one鈥檚 own status was highly stable across partners (~90% variance explained by self; <0.01% by partner), more so than other traits. Evaluation of one鈥檚 partner鈥檚 status was also highly attributable to the self (almost 40% of variance), more so than other traits, but also had 18% of variance attributed to the partner. Results suggest one's own status is highly internalized and stable across conversations鈥攏ot varying much by partner. Evaluation of an interaction partner鈥檚 status is shaped by a mix of projection from the evaluator and social inference. This work offers novel insight into the stability and social construction of status.

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_{Diane-Jo Bart-Plange, Ph.D}

_{Faculty, Psychology & Neuroscience}

_{Kengthsagn Louis, Ph.D.听}

_{Faculty, Psychology & Neuroscience}

_{Maura Stoehr}

_{Graduate Student, Psychology & Neuroscience}

_{Maureen Ritchey}

_{Ph.D.听Faculty, Psychology & Neuroscience}

_{Trystan Loustau}

_{Graduate Student, Psychology & Neuroscience}

_{Marcus Trenfiel}

_{Graduate Student, Psychology & Neuroscience Dept}

_{Regan Bernhard, Ph.D.}

_{Faculty, Psychology & Neuroscience}

_{Oluwatobi Abubakare}

_{Graduate Student, Psychology & Neuroscience}

_{Jordan Wylie, Ph.D.听}

_{Faculty, Cornell University Psychology}

_{Fazli Salim}

_{Graduate Student, Psychology & Neuroscience}

_{Helen Zheng}

_{Graduate Student, Psychology & Neuroscience}

_{Lauren Voso听}

_{Research Associate/Lab Manager, Psychology & Neuroscience}

_{Marie Diagne}

_{Graduate Student, Psychology & Neuroscience}

_{Sara Haman}

_{Research Associate/Lab Manager, Psychology & Neuroscience}

_{Kelly Kane}

_{Visiting Assistant Professor, Psychology & Neuroscience}

Campus Map and Parking

Campus Map and Parking:

Parking is available at the nearby Beacon Street and Commonwealth Avenue Garages.

Boston College is also accessible via public transportation (MBTA B Line - Boston College).

Directions, Maps, and Parking

Visitor Parking Information

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